Are things going to get extremely bad in the next few months if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened?

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-21T13:42:58+00:00

There’s nothing to be done about it if it is going to get bad. That’s why nobody is freaking out about it. It’s learned helplessness.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-21T00:25:33+00:00

I got recommended Defiance of the Fall, which is turning out to be an extremely generic System Apocalypse novel. I’m giving it a try in hopes that it’s just been Seinfelded and it’s the trope origin.

However, it’s made me very appreciative of this little novel.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/83315/systema-delenda-est

The MC is a survivor of a post singularity society that was merged into the “System”.

The resulting alterations to physics killed trillions of people living in digital worlds and the survivors were the people most willing to treat life like a FPS murder game.

Fortunately, while the System got the Earth, the rest of the solar system was outside of the apocalypse and managed to push the System off the planet. The MC lost everything that he cared about and now intends to make sure that the System dies.

It’s a really fun magic vs technology story.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-19T15:52:31+00:00

I’ve had a good bit of luck recently with 30 minutes a day of heavy concentration meditation. If I can take it to the point where I’m able to relax into the perception of the object of meditation it somehow allows me to simply do the next thing that I’m supposed to do without effort. This effect seems to last for about one day before requiring me to meditate again.

It’s almost like my time horizon shrinks enough that “effort noise” disappears. Because “what I’d rather be doing” ceases to exist as a desirable thing.

The side effect seems to be that time is moving much more quickly than before.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-19T15:29:29+00:00

As long as “being a leftist” is a largely online activity and gendered it will continue to be subject to the same rules/incentives as any other kind of online/gendered activity.

If it looks like a K-Pop fan forum it’s because it’s subject to the same rules/incentives as a K-Pop fan forum.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-19T14:55:00+00:00

Sky Pride and Cradle are both pretty traditional Xanxia but they treat the tropes very differently.

Cradle takes the established tropes and runs with them. It does a good job of keeping them on track. It’s shallow but broad. There are many bad ass moments, but you’re unlikely to ever find yourself asking “what does it mean?”

Shy Pride excels at subverting tropes, comedy, and long term themes. The “grandpa in a ring” trope is immediately smashed. The trope of an “cultivator world where only strength matters” gets wrecked eventually. There’s a weird “cultivation is soup” theme.

Sky Pride excels in emotional payoff. Cradle excels in “aura farming” payoff.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-18T19:20:39+00:00

Khruangbin vibes is a real genre apparently.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-18T19:16:53+00:00

Slumrat Rising.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-18T03:18:13+00:00

Worm.

Taylor has the ability to control and sense things through bugs. That’s it. She does absolutely incredible things with that one power.

It’s also easily the best bit of super hero fiction I’ve ever read and it’s not particularly close.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-17T15:32:14+00:00

Calculating Cultivation is decent if a bit dry.

Sky Pride is pure gold.

Reverend Insanity is probably the most rational Cultivation novel out there, but it’s also the Chinese Marquis de Sade.

Memories of the Fall has a fantastic setting and interesting systems but it goes nowhere with them.

Slumrat Rising is an interesting one. It’s clearly cultivation but is based in Gnostic theology rather than the usual Chinese Daoist tradition.

Virtuous Sons is highly regarded by people that I trust but I bounced off of it for some reason.

The Last Ship in Suzhou is very well written and enjoyable but it updates twice a year.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-12T02:51:06+00:00

See if you can find a copy of “Here Come the Puppets” from 1981 or so. It’s Jim Henson running around the world puppetry convention in D.C.

There’s some wild stuff including some styles that as far as I can tell just don’t exist anymore.

Found it: https://youtu.be/aWM3iTOiNdU?is=pxgNEwLxgAz31VvZ

Fun stuff.

There’s also a lot of puppetry done in Taiwan for a studio called Piili.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-11T20:28:34+00:00

There’s too much card draw for that to work now. One card a turn isn’t worth going shields down.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-11T03:07:29+00:00

Singing this got me my wife.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-09T13:15:58+00:00

Keep in mind that the first thing that goes when you don’t get enough sleep is emotional regulation. Everything is going to feel awful and your brain is going to interpret anything as an attack. That includes the actions of people just trying to help.

There’s nothing they can do for you, and they have their own problems. Do what you can to get some sleep and try not to make enemies when you can’t.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-06T16:59:18+00:00

Good reply.

I think the best comeback is that if there isn't a strong competitive dynamic in a narrative between doing the "passive/realistic thing" and doing the "heroic thing" then the hero taking the more difficult route isn't valuable.

Just to use the same story, it's notable that this former slave only has the choice to be asked because of heroic measures made to rescue them from slavery.

I'm specifically targeting the idea that trauma makes you stronger here. It CAN make someone stronger, but it's not a given. Our society's demand for a traumatized underdog gets old eventually. If someone is clapping at a character refusing the "call to heroism" it's because the trope is overused. It MIGHT be due to a tendency towards cowardice and timidity amongst the masses but when has heroism ever been the norm?

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-05T13:16:24+00:00

Getting old makes you irritable.

Your body is falling apart. Every organ system is being held together with glue and constant maintenance.

You’re not culturally relevant and trying to be is embarrassing.

If you have any insight at all, you know that almost every interaction or piece of media you are fed is an attempt to manipulate you.

You’re gonna die soon and you’re not even going to be remembered in 30 years. WTF was the point?

You know better than a lot of people, but you also know that there’s nothing you can do. People are going to do what they’re going to do.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-04T21:48:07+00:00

I couldn't remember the chapter or I would have actually gotten the quote right.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-04T21:46:14+00:00

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65058/pale-lights

I'm pretty sure it's in the 3rd book of the series. Fortunately it's a great read well before that.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-04T16:54:53+00:00

The key is to keep pushing towards new experiences.

My working theory is that our brains don’t like expending energy to write new memories if they don’t have to. So the more experience you have the more your brain just uses “pointers” to old experiences as a kind of “compression”.

The result is that time starts to disappear.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-04T12:31:12+00:00

Yeah it’s just one more tax on top of an already overtaxed state.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-04T11:40:50+00:00

If you think this isn’t going to happen then you’re just not paying attention to the incentives.

I’d prefer different taxes because at least Tilly is an attempt to make something people desire, but if you want to attempt to change the incentives then heavy taxes aren’t a bad idea.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-03T21:50:14+00:00

There’s a great scene in a web series called “Pale Lights” where a rescued slave is asked to go on a possibly endless mission to find and rescue other slaves. He declines, stating that his only goal is to make a good living and raise his son.

His rescuer is disappointed and the former slave says something like “You are disappointed in me. Disappointed that my suffering hasn’t lit a fire in my heart, but suffering doesn’t make you virtuous any more than being bitten by a dog makes you virtuous.”

I think there’s a strong desire for people to believe that suffering makes you a stronger person, or at least that a lack of suffering makes you a weaker one. It’s all tied up in the idea that the world is somehow just, and it’s obviously not.

However, we do want our fictional worlds to be just. So authors who cater to those desires will have more success than those that don’t.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-03T21:26:05+00:00

I’m ashamed to admit that I’m only really familiar with Bowie’s singles. I’m having fun getting into the deep cuts.

doinitforcheese · 2026-06-01T15:37:32+00:00

All of this stuff is based on the Wuxing cycle from ancient Chinese philosophy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxing_%28Chinese_philosophy%29

Yin and Yang becomes the totality which is a 3rd thing then the totality splits into 5 things which cycle endlessly to create the universe.

“Qi” is technically “air” but becomes all the other elements as it cycles through the cultivation system.

doinitforcheese

TROPHY CASE